In the field of upholstered furniture for leaning or seating such as beds, sofas and armchairs, a special attention is paid to the comfort of use.
From the point of view of the position taken, to ensure that that position is the most ergonomic or the most appropriate for certain activities, they are conventionally known upholstered furniture with reclining backrests.
Upholstered backrests and armrests with adjustable position for sofas and armchairs of conventional type have a fixed lower portion and an upper portion that can assume a plurality of angular positions, in one direction or another, with respect to the lower portion. These conventional upholstered backrests or armrests comprise a flat fixed frame portion and a flat movable frame portion hinged to the fixed portion to allow rotation of the movable portion in a plane orthogonal to the plane of the frame. Both the fixed portion and the movable portion of the frame are contained within the same container element in flabby material, such as leather, fabric or the like, and between the frame and the container element are interposed cushioning elements in yielding material that confer a given volume to the backrest or armrest. Backrests, armrests or even upholstered headboards for beds of the type described above allow you to take on different postures when desired and the comfort they give suffers from several limitations. First, they are equipped with only one degree of freedom of rotation for which the number and the type of configurations that they can assume is limited. Furthermore, since they have to carry out a fundamental function of supporting the body weight they have internal frames and stiff cushioning which cannot guarantee the maximum comfort, so that very often stand-alone pillows are associated with them simply having the function of increasing the softness and pliability of the support surface. A solution of this type is given in the published patent application with n. DE 20 2009 006801 U1 in which is described a backrest for sofas that has a lower portion that comprises a fixed rigid frame and an upper portion that has a movable frame with a single degree of freedom of rotation with respect to the fixed frame. In addition, the backrest described provides means for connecting to the seat that are removable thanks to a pin that protrudes outwards from the lower end of the backrest and is connected in sliding mode to an internal frame of the seat.
The above limits are at least partially overcome by the armrests and backrests for sofas and armchairs described in the international patent application WO 2014/162292 A1, in the name of the same applicant, in which to a fixed lower frame are hinged at least two movable frames which can swing independently one from the other with respect to the fixed frame. A backrest or armrest as described in said international application has two or more degrees of freedom of rotation and can therefore assume a much greater number and type of configurations. Moreover, the space inside the backrest or armrest comprised between two independent movable frames does not present elements of rigid frame and it can be filled with upholstery with degree of filling also very low, thus realizing the smoothness and softness typical of the pillows. However, even this latter solution has limitations relatively to the versatility and comfort of use since the fixed portion of the backrest or armrest is rigidly fixed to the frame of the furniture so that it is not possible, except by adding free pillows, to adjust the softness of the support exactly where you want.
The pillows or cushions are furnishing substantially constituted by a container element in a flabby material such as leather, fabric, or other similar material, containing within cushioning materials up to a specific and desired degree of filling. There are pillows or cushions of the most varied shapes and size, and yet the most popular pillows, which for descriptive simplicity will be referred to below, are those who have two opposite sides of substantially identical rectangular shape and a relatively low thickness with respect to the area of the above sides. The pillows used for sitting or resting furniture such as beds, sofas, armchairs to make them more comfortable are cushions in which the degree of filling with the filling material is relatively low since their main task is to provide a particularly soft and pliable support for certain body portions. In fact, the main advantage deriving from the use of free cushions on sitting or resting furniture such as sofas, armchairs or beds is to provide an element softer and more comfortable than the simple support surfaces of the furniture itself and that at the meantime can be moved easily and freely in any position to give more softness when you most feel the need. However, conventional pillows can only be used to make it more soft and yielding the supporting surface but they do not substantially perform any supporting function, as they do not provide sufficient rigidity.
There are also cushions whose main function is to support certain body portions that are equipped with an internal frame and connecting members suitable to be inserted into an appropriate slot of a furniture to which can be associated. Cushions of this type are for example those used as headrest. However, conventional cushions-like headrests have a very limited softness and pliability as they must have mainly support function, and are fastened to the respective furniture in a substantially fixed position. A cushion of the aforementioned type, used as backrest for a sofa is for example described in the European patent application published with no. EP 0405681 A1 which describes a cushion for sofas that includes a lower portion in which is present a frame composed of rigid elements connected together so as to allow flexibility to rotations around a plurality of vertical axis and an upper portion in which there are a plurality of elongate flexible elements that allow significant overall flexibility of the upper portion. Two pins protrude downwardly from the rigid frame of the lower portion to be inserted in suitable holes of the seat so that the cushion can be associated with and removed from the corresponding seat. The cushion described above has a great flexibility and nevertheless presents some limits. First, the inner frame has a rather complex structure that entails high manufacturing costs. Furthermore, the cushion can be associated to the furniture only at its bottom side and the shape that the lower portion takes depends largely on the position of the housing holes provided in the seat.